This is news?

The whole (interested) world knows that Hillary was in Columbus this week with the DLC. I happened to hear one reporter who had attended and listened to her speech speak to another who had not, saying, "It was remarkably lacking in substance."

That was such an obvious laugh line, delivered deadpan, that I looked up at the speaker to make sure whether he was joking. He was not.

A better reason to have attended would have been to meet the LA Time's Ron Brownstein, who writes the occasional interesting column. His news story is interesting, if thankless. I'm a little worried by this line, though: "All this suggests that strains could develop between Clinton's desire to write a plan popular with as wide an array of Democrats as possible and the DLC's hope of crafting a sharply focused centrist road map — even if that means continued conflict with liberals that Clinton may be reluctant to antagonize. "

Yeah, maybe so, Ron. But where's the attribution? Why include this at all? This is a news story, isn't it, instead of an opinion piece?

LAGuy adds: I look at Brownstein now and then and it's my impression he does "analysis." That means he can include as much or as little news as he wants. His greatest value is he's pretty good at presenting conventional wisdom, particularly among the Democrats.

Columbus Guy says: Mickey Kaus joins in, also finding Hillary less than titillating